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Business Studies students hold Q&A

Sixth form A-level and BTEC Business Studies students joined Arsenal Football Club on Tuesday, July 15, for a tour of the Gunners’ home, Emirates Stadium and an opportunity to put their questions to Head of Marketing Angus Kinnear and Customer Service Manager, Penny Downs.

The students covered five Arsenal Business Studies pilot modules which are real-life case studies related to the Club and cover topics such as organisational structure, finance, customer care, catering and sponsorship which were developed in partnership with London Metropolitan University and Jon Pettigrew, a Business Studies teacher at South Camden Community School.

Students attending the session from Westminster Kingsway (Holloway Road Campus), Acland Burghley School, Camden and Highbury Grove School enjoyed a tour of Emirates Stadium in order to put their class work into context whilst thinking about questions to put to Arsenal Football Club’s representatives from the customer care and marketing department inside the press conference room at the stadium.

Alan Sefton, Head of Arsenal in the Community said: “Like so many of our education initiatives, we’re responding to demand from teachers who sometimes want an extra hook to which young people can relate. Today’s event is a way for the young people to put the Club’s case studies into context and explore beyond the subject matter. It may even help them with future career choices.”

17 year-old student Adesoro Lawal-Solarin from Blackstock Road, Islington said: “The Q & A today with Angus and Penny has been extremely helpful. I’m currently studying business studies, but I’ve always been interested in the marketing side of business. Today, meeting Angus and listening to his insightful answers, has helped me with my career choice; I leave today knowing that I wish to go to university, take a course in marketing, and hopefully become a Marketing Manager within a football club in the future.

“This pilot study has worked well and I think it can motivate more young people to choose to take business studies in higher education. Penny and Angus were fantastic at answering all of the questions put to them.”

Many insightful questions were raised at the hour-long Q & A session with Penny and Angus including: Why is it important for Arsenal, as a business, to separate its playing staff and working staff? This raised the discussion of whether this is actually important, and Penny explained that in fact, when looking at the separation, it’s more of a physical separation. In truth, all players and staff are heading towards the same goal across the board in presenting Arsenal as a Club with tradition and a vision, and ultimately offering the best matchday experience for our supporters on all levels.

Angus answered questions across a wide range of topics and students were interested to learn about the significance of a tiered sponsorship structure at Arsenal for potential commercial partners, explaining that it allows for the Club to work with many other companies who will all have differing sponsorship objectives, but objectives that the Club ultimately can fulfil through the partnership.The Q & A session falls under the work of Arsenal in the Community who undertake many education initiatives in order to engage young people using the power of football and fusing it with curriculum subjects.

Copyright 2015 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source22 Jul 2008

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